This invention relates generally to Deep Fat Fryers and particularly to a novel Deep Fat Fryer design that is useful for different types of fryers and fryer sizes and should consequently prove less costly to manufacture. The design of the fryer makes for easier operation, enhanced cleanability and more efficient operation.
Deep fat fryers, such as those employed in restaurants, are well-known in the art and generally include a frypot for containing a cooking medium, such as oil, one or more wire baskets for supporting foodstuffs in the cooking medium, means for heating the cooking medium and various user controls for establishing different cook cycles. These controls generally comprise a timer, a temperature control, various indicating and status lights and alarms, etc. The fryer also includes a drain to permit removal of the cooking medium when it becomes contaminated. It is common to use gas burners, including atmospheric burners and blower powered gas burners that have infrared (IR) heating elements, in conjunction with microprocessor-controlled gas flow valves, for supplying heat to the cooking medium and providing temperature control for cooking various foodstuffs in the baskets in accordance with the user-established cook cycle. A manufacturer, such as the Assignee of the present invention, Keating of Chicago, Inc., generally produces a line of deep flat fryers that includes fryers of different size and capacity. A fryer with a large frypot may, for example have from three to six heat tubes positioned in the frypot, with a number of burner units for supplying heat, via combustion products, to the heat tubes.
Commonality of parts is a major factor for a manufacturer in controlling costs and production procedures and in one aspect the present invention design incorporates a modular IR burner/blower combination and a replaceable restrictor plate for changing the heat characteristics of the combination and enabling use of one or more of the modular burner/blowers among a variety of different size and capacity fryers.
Burner and heat transfer efficiency are important to both user and manufacturer; an inefficient design costing more in time and energy for the user, and entailing the need for more robust and complex fuel delivery and exhaust systems for the manufacturer. Servicing of the fryers is also an important consideration and a feature of the present invention design, enables service or adjustment of the gas flow valves, burner/blower combinations and air flow control devices to be accomplished with access only to the front of the fryer and without significant disassembly. In a further aspect the fryer is maintained in a clean state, with the air supplied to the burners being filtered and with the internal working parts of the fryer being substantially sealed from the environment. This has a salutary effect on equipment operation, since there is less likelihood of electrical and mechanical breakdown when the equipment is relatively free of grease, dirt, debris, etc.